Electric cable



(N0 Model.) I

- .w. JACQUES.

Electric Gable.

No. 239,506. Patented March 29,1881.

' Wi'T'NEEEEIE INVEN U W MM WW qwgww) UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

IVILLIAM V. JACQUES, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

ELECTRiC CABLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 239,506, dated March 29, 1881.

Application filed February 8, 1881.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, WILLIAM W. JACQUES, of Boston, county of Suffolk, State of Massachusetts, have invented Improvements in Electric Cables, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawing, is a specification.

My invention relates to electric cables of that class in which several independent conductors, insulated from one another, are included in a single cable, or inclosed in a pipe or protecting covering; and it has for its object to prevent the electric impulses or currents passing over one of the said conductors from producing currents in the other conductors by induction.

In cables of this class the separate conductors have usually been embedded in a mass of insulating material, separating them electrically from one another, but leaving them exposed to the efiects produced by induction from one to another, since in this arrangement the adjacent lines form the nearest body of conducting material upon which the currents in a given line can expend their energy.

I have discovered that by inclosing each wire in an independent covering of insulating material, and by surrounding the said covering with a mass of conducting material which is so introduced into the cable as to entirely fill the interstices between the independent insulated conductors, the energy of the electric currents in any one of the said conductors will be expended upon the surrounding mass of conducting materal instead of upon the adjacent wires, since the said surrounding mass, although it may be of lower specific conductivity, has a much greater conducting area, and is nearer to each one of the wires than the nearest of its neighboring wires.

My invention consists in filling the spaces between the insulated coatings of a series of independentinsulating-conductors with a mass of conducting material, which may be liquid, or consist of evenly-divided and mobile material, such as metal filings or other granular or pulverized conducting material, which may (No model.)

laid under ground, and the independent electrical conductors I), each covered with a coatingof insulating material, 0, are bound together to enable them to be all drawn into the pipes at at once, and while being so drawn in the fastenin gs which bound them together are removed, so that the said conductors lie loosely in the pipes, as shown, when they are ready for use. In order to prevent, in accordance with my invention, the induction efiects between different insulated conductors b 0, when thus drawn into the pipe, it is filled with a conducting-liquid, d, which may be acidulated water or a strong saline solution or any other liquid of suitable conducting power which will not injure the insulating covering 0 of the wires or the inner surface of the inclosing-tube.

In some instances the cable may be provided with a covering, a, of lead tubing or other suitable material in the process of manufacture, in which case the surrounding conducting material (I need not be liquid, but may consist of metal filings or any other conducting material, which may be made to fill the spaces between the insulating covering 0 of the wires 11.

In case the cable is to be used under water, the insulated conductors b c, suitably collected together, may be surrounded with a sheathing of iron-wire or other suitable material, arranged to allow the water to enter and completely surround each of the said conductors, so as to prevent any inductive action of one wire upon the others,

Solid conductive material may be employed, instead of theliquid cl, to occupy the space between the insulated conductors b 0, such material being made to fill the interstices in the process of making the cable, or being introduced into the pipe or inclosing-case a in a molten or mobile condition and allowed to solidify therein.

The insulating material 0 and conducting material d should be chosen in reference to one another so that the action of one on the LII other may not be injurious. The conducting material (I in the interstices between the insulated conductors c at will form a single conductor, which should be connected with the ground from point to point, in order to afford a free passage for the currents induced therein.

I claim 1. An electric cable comprising an inclosingtube, and within said tube a series of insulated conductors and conducting material, arranged as described, the said conducting material surrounding insulated conductors and filling the space between them, as set forth.

2. In an electric cable a series of independent insulated conductors and an iuclosing-tube therefor, combined with mobile or liquid con- WM. XV. J AOQUES.

Witnesses:

J os. P. LIVERMORE, L. F. GoNNoR. 

